EDITOR'S NOTE:There
are many resources on Islam on the web, but there are
relatively few resources of established credibility brought
together in one place. I have heavily relied on
Wikipedia entries, along with other sources, to establish a relatively
reliable
"platform" for further exploration. Wikipedia has its limitations but
can help provide a useful beginning in a highly controversial field.

The
enormity
of
the
challenge
is
obvious:
relations
with
some
50
majority
Islamic
nations
--
all
different
but
sharing
in
varying
form
a
cultural
tradition
related
to
but
far
different
from
Christianity
and
Judaism.

The
most
pessimistic
of
Western
commentators
compare
global
Islam
to
an
aggressive
network
of
Nazi
like
expansionists.
Others
see
it
as
less
threatening
--
as
a
complex
religion
used
to
rally
differing factions, meaning
different things in different parts
of the world.

In a
complex religious tradition, who determines today's meaning?

In
studying
human
rights
issues
a
key
question
has
often
been
Is this a Nazi kind of
thing? The label can make for emotional propaganda, for
imprisonment by analogies rooted in the past. But it may also
stimulate serious inquiry.

The
challenge
of
making
both
war
and
peace
in
the
Islamic
"world"
easily
equals
the
challenge
of
the
bridge
building
that
ended
the
Vietnam
War
and
created
a
new
bond
with
China.
Can
an
American
people
soured
by
ignorance
and
war
meet
the
challenge?
Are
the
varieties
of
Islam
a
fertile
field
for
bridge
building?
Or
will
they
become
an
implacable,
permanent
enemy?

The
verdict
is
not
in.

The
essay below
introduces internet resources, as well as support for users of
applications for Iphone, Ipod Touch, and Ipad. The viewer can bypass
the essay by clicking on the links above.

*****

"God gave humans
the truth, and the devil
came and he said, 'Let's give it a name and
call it religion.'" - Deepak Chopra

Islam,
like
many
other
religions,
is
not
inherently
authoritarian
or
narrow.

But
it
can sometimes
move
in
that
direction
because
it,
like other
religions, sometimes
delegates to a
human elite the power to dictate and interpret the scriptural law
emanating from something considered divine.

Islam
was
probably
ahead
of
much
of
Christendom
in
much
of
the
Middle
Ages
in
the
sense
that
there
was
no
Pope
or
Islamic
leader
controlling
government.
There
was
often
more
tolerance
of
diversity
in
the
Islamic
World
than
in the Christian World.

Islam
has
in
some
ways
gone
backwards
with
governments
sometimes
enforcing
Islamic
orthodoxy.
Conservative
or
radical
rebels
can
seize
on
the
authority of the Qur’an for anti-government political
purposes.
Or to
conduct campaigns of terrorism or to abuse women.

Even
though the Qur’an itself does not endorse or encourage such
actions.

Still
religious
orthodoxies
often
require
the
believer to
obey
religious
texts
as
interpreted
by
religious
leaders.
This
often
defines
the
person
who
disagrees
as
a "heretic."

That
label
can
justify
all
sorts
of
abuse.

It
must
be
remembered
more than 50 nations have populations containing
at least a majority of Muslims. There is a large variety of
beliefs and practices contending both within these nations and between
them.

The
internet
sources
cited
below
make it clear gross generalizations can be
misleading.

But is
this a religion which offers challenges to peacemakers -- or is it
increasingly "a Nazi kind of thing."

It
was
President John F. Kennedy who articulated, like his Cold War
predecessors, the notion that Communism was a monolithic, integrated,
and ruthless conspiracy -- a notion which dominated the nation, its
media and its
universities.

It
was a notion
which
helped lead to the Vietnam War.

Other
"experts" understood that Communism meant different things in
different countries, so it was no great surprise when China and the
Soviet Union went
to war.

The
debate
is
rejoined:
is
Islam
a
monolithic
civilization
at
war
with
the
West
or
is
it
a
religion
meaning
different
things
to
different
people
expressing
the
varied
needs
of
many
parts
of
the
world
--
depending
on
how
interpreted?

*****

Islam is
the world's second
largest religion after Christianity. According to a 2009 demographic
study, Islam has 1.57 billion adherents, making up 23 percent of the
world population.

Islam is
the predominant
religion in the Middle East, in northern Africa,
and
in
some
parts
of
Asia.
Large communities of Muslims are also found in China, the Balkans, and
Russia.
Other parts of the world host large Muslim immigrant communities; in
Western Europe, for instance, Islam is the second largest religion
after Christianity, though it represents less than five percent of the
total population.

Approximately
50 countries are
Muslim-majority.
Around 62 percent of the world's Muslims live in Asia, with over
683 million adherents in such countries as Indonesia (the
largest
Muslim country by population, home to 15.6 percent of the world's
Muslims),
Pakistan,
India,
and
Bangladesh
(all
three
being
successor
states
to
the
former
British
Raj).
About 20 percent of Muslims live in Arab
countries. (All figures from Wikipedia)

*****

At
times
Islam
has
been
associated
with
highly
advanced
civilizations,
but
like
so
many
other
religions, including Christianity and Judaism, it
can translate into notions of group superiority.

Perhaps
it
is
not
the
religion
itself
which
is
to
blame
but
the
environment
in
which it often operates: countries with deep rooted cultures sometimes
in chaos, transition, or
authoritarianism -- where religion becomes hijacked by governments or
rebel groups as a tool toward political ends.

Islam,
like Western
religions,
has
become entertwined
with
politics.
The
three
monotheistic
religions of Christianity, Islam, and
Judaism have posed problems for our age when they are used to
pursue nationalistic or revolutionary goals.

This
is
not
to
say
that
religions
both
East
and
West
do
not
perform
many
very
positive
functions.
They
often
encourage saintliness, giving,
compassion. But there is always the danger they will be used and
abused. And turned into political strait jackets.

My
own
evolving
view
is
that many current
abuses
of
Islam
reflect
the
nature
of
troubled,
changing,
unpredictable societies.
Societies coping with challenges to traditional values, economic
change, and repeated onslaughts of outside influence or
control. To consider all this a monolithic block, a dark and
threatening forest is premature.

Where this leads will depend upon not only what happens in Islamic
countries but what happens in the West. And if Islamic extremists
were to succeed in exploding a nuclear weapon in an American city, we
can envision a longterm battle which truly polarizes the globe.

******

In
Afghanistan
decades
of
destabilization
and
civil
war,
Soviet
and
American
invasion.

Then
came
American
fomenting
of
rebellion
and
civil
war.
Then
American
withdrawal,
then,
with
Pakistani
sponsorship,
the
emergence
of
hardcore
Pashtun
nationalists (Taliban) using Islam as a tool for order.

Years
of
war
and
civil
war
can
bring
to
the
top
both
the
"best
and
the
worst"
of
religious
committment.

In
America
the
end
of
the
Civil
War
and
end
of
Reconstruction
brought
the
terror
of
the
KKK
in
the
late 19th Century and "Jim Crow" segregation
in the 20th. In
the American South Christianity became part of a system of "terror" to
repress the ex-slave and also a powerful tool the ex-slave could use to
endure, persevere,
hold on, "to keep the eye on the prize."

It
is
important
to
understand
that
a
religion
is
not
one
monolithic
entitity
or
movement
but
a
variety
of
things
in different places under
changing circumstances.

Sharia
Law:
Contemporary
Issues, a Wikipedia survey.Is Sharia Law
coming to the
United States? Although Sharia is widely feared, the
religious
"law" of other traditions is already enshirned in American secular law.
The courts and the legislatures ultimately decide. See this National
Public
Radio
piece.

This
Cairo Declaration of Human Rights
is seen as an Islamic response to the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights, 1948. This Islamic version leaves everything in the hands of
God, which leaves open the question who speaks for God. Western human
rights codes have similar problems in that the leave ambiguous who will
interpret and enforce them.Ann
Elizabeth
Mayer:
Islam
and
Human
Rights:
Tradition
and
Politics:
a major volume dealing with the uneasy relationship between traditional
Islamic law and developing concepts of universal human rights. Efforts
to modernize Islamic law reduce the tensions, but they are still there.
Click here
for Amazon summaries and reviews.An
examination by
a
Muslim intellectual of some tensions between "Western" and "Islamic"
concepts of human rights. The author, Riffat
Hassan,
who
teaches
religion
at
the
U.
of
Louisville,
advocates
a
modernization
and
reinterpretation
of
traditional
Islamic
attitudes
toward
women.An
interesting
website
on Islam
and
Western concepts of human rights. It is important not to let
the
growth of American anti-Islamic xenophobias distract from the real
human rights issues and differences of opinion within various Islamic
countries.Emory Law
School. Islam
and Human Rights: a useful web resource for exploring Islamic
law
and human rights issues in a variety of Islamic countries from Africa
to Asia.About Islam:
for Westerners
seeking to understand Islam and issues such as the status of women: "I
consider it essential to make a clear distinction between, on the one
hand, the theology and religion of Islam and, on the other, politics
and terrorism involving Muslims who sometimes swathe their local
culture or regional geopolitical concerns in the cloak of Islam. Many
born Muslims both overseas and among immigrant communities in the West
conspicuously fail to differentiate between these."-- From the
introduction to this website by a Western former Christian who
converted to Islam.The
plight
of Muslim women under the Afghan Taliban: a subsection of the
"Islam For Today" website. The broader website leads in many
other directions concerning Islam. Designed for Westerners.

Women in
Islam:
a Wikipedia survey.Women in Islam:
a
useful web resource with multiple links. Other parts of the site have
lots of other material on Islam geared toward Westerners. Some
contributions are self evident; with others care must be taken on
sources and credibility.The Fundamentalist
Agenda: an analysis by Unitarian
pastor Davidson Loehr comparing extreme Christian Fundamentalism with
extreme Islamic Fundamentalism. While harshly drawn, it can be a
challenge to explore similarities among fundamentalists concerning the
"place" of women.

Women's
Wear: the head
covering hijab
(including modest body dress) and the full face covering burka. These links examine different
national and
government regulations on women's dress.

For the classic
treatment of Islamic views on sexuality and chastity see the Qur'an (Surah 24).

Virgins in paradise? What is the
background of the widespread belief that martyrs and terrorists will
receive 72 virgins in Paradise? In the Qur'an, the houri are
described as
splendid companions of equal age who enter paradise after being recreated in
the afterlife.Companions
rendered
pure
and
virginal.

The
houri are mentioned in several places in the Qur’an (Surah 56; 16-38).
Check
the
passage
itself
to
decide
if
this
is
a
sexual
reward.
Although
plural,
no
specifics are given as to the number of houries available. They are
made granted to all Muslims in paradise, not just martyrs.Some
commentaries (hadiths) specify 72, but their authenticity and
degree of acceptance by Muslims is disputed.

Here is "tongue in cheek"
an American
Jewish
author's
interview on YouTube with Palestinian
"terrorists" on the 72 virgin issue. And another YouTube
interview by pro Israel Algerian refugee Jewish activist Pierre Rehov
purporting to show Muslims
who
believe
the
72
virgin
promise. Remember it's not always what is
in the Qu'ran that counts -- but what you are told and how you are
indoctrinated.

Leila
Ahmedis
an Egyptian born
Islamic feminist who has taught at the Harvard
Divinity
School. In Women
and Gender
in Islam
(1992), Ahmed argues that
oppressive practices toward women in the Middle East
are due to interpretations of Islam in patriarchal countries rather
than Islam itself. See a
YouTube TV
interview with a Muslim feminist, including a later interview
with
Leila Ahmed herself.Leila Ahmed argues the position
of women in
Islam is being used by "Western people in power" to discredit Islam.

Honor
killings
in Islamic nations can target both men and women, but most victims are
women.An honor killingis
the murder of a family or clan member by
one or more fellow family members, in which the perpetrators (and
potentially the wider community) believe the victim to have brought
dishonor upon the family, clan, or community. The United Nations Population
Fund (UNFPA)
estimates that the annual worldwide total of honor-killing victims may
be as high as 5,000. Many women's groups in the
Middle East and
Southwest Asia suspect the victims are at least four times more.Honor
killings
had
been
reported
in
Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Pakistan, the Syrian
Arab
Republic, Turkey, Yemen, and other Mediterranean
and Persian
Gulf countries,
and that they had
also taken place in western countries such as France, Germany and the United Kingdom, within migrant communities. Wikipedia.

The
practice of Zina, sex outside of marriage, gets
considerable attention in Islamic history. What to do about
it in
the contemporary world is an issue in some Islamic countries.

From the Hadith
Muslim. commentaries on the Prophet a century or more after
his
death (570-632 AD): a justification of stoning for adultery, not in
the Qur’an :

"There
came
to
him
(the
Holy
Prophet)
a
woman
from
Ghamid
and
said:
Allah's
Messenger,
I
have
committed
adultery,
so
purify
me.
He
(the
Holy
Prophet)
turned
her
away.
On
the
...following day she said: Allah's
Messenger,
Why do you turn me away? Perhaps, you turn me away as you turned away
Ma'iz. By Allah, I have become pregnant. He said: Well, if you insist
upon it, then go away until you give birth to (the child). When she was
delivered she came with the child (wrapped) in a rag and said: Here is
the child whom I have given birth to. He said: Go away and suckle him
until you wean him. When she had weaned him, she came to him (the Holy
Prophet) with the child who was holding a piece of bread in his hand.
She said: Allah's Apostle, here is he as I have weaned him and he eats
food. He (the Holy Prophet) entrusted the child to one of the Muslims
and then pronounced punishment. And she was put in a ditch up to her
chest and he commanded people and they stoned her. "

This
study from an Islamic
scholar's point of view downloadable in .pdf format argues
that
Islamic punishments for
adultery were more advanced
than what came before. In a broad survey of punishments in
many
early
civilizations he argues that some Muslims after Muhammad neglected his
teachings and slid backward in judgement and punishment. The question
for Islamic countries is what to do today.

We can see in the below hadiths the foundation for modest veils and
robes as man is seen as most vulnerable to the charms of the woman
arouse the man's hunger for Zina:

1622. Abu Hurairah (May
Allah pleased with him) said: The Prophet (PBUH) said, "Allah has
written the very portion of Zina which a man will indulge in. There
will be no escape from it. The Zina of the eye is the (lustful) look,
the Zina of the ears is the listening (to voluptuous songs or talk),
the Zina of the tongue is (the licentious) speech, the Zina of the hand
is the (lustful) grip, the Zina of the feet is the walking (to the
place where he intends to commit Zina), the heart yearns and desires
and the private parts approve all that or disapprove it.'' [Al-Bukhari
and Muslim hadiths].

If you wish to
explore sex
education Muslim style, there are a number of 99 cent Iphone/Ipod
Touch/Ipad applications
(apps) which systematically instruct on everything
from how
to deal with two wives, to gay sex, to contraception, and to
photographing your wife while she is nude.

A knowledge of sexuality in Islam is essential to understand the gap
between traditional Islam and modern "Western" culture. Sexuality in
Islam is largely described by the Qur’an and hadith, and the
rulings of
religious leaders' (fatwa) as confined to marital relationships between
men and women. Intimacy as
perceived within Islam
-- encompassing a swathe of life more broad than strictly sex
--
is largely to be reserved for marriage.Explore a rich selection of
concise links
in Wikipedia under sexual
jurisprudence.

ISLAM:
SCOPE
AND
DOCTRINE

The
official
Wikipedia "portal" to Islam: perhaps the single most useful
introductory web source of background information on Islam. Despite its
limitations, it will be an important guidepost to any inquiry
concerning Islam.

Who Decides:
the
Qu'ran
and
other
Islamic
religious
documentes
can
be
differently
interpreted
to
justify
vastly
different social, moral, and political
actions.

Symbols
of Islam:
in
the
absence
of
credible,
readable
web
materials
on
Islam,
Wikipedia
fills
the
vacuum,
even
though
many
of
its
entries
have
been
tagged
as
needing
improvement.
This
one
contains
a
useful
index
to
its
major
contributions
on
Islam.
It
amplifies
in
detail
the
Wikipedia
"portal"
to
Islam.

Sunni Islam: a Wikipedia portrait. The
largest branch
comprising 90 percent of the world's Muslim population.Wahhabi is the dominant Sunni form of
Islam in
Saudi Arabia. It has developed considerable
influence in
the Muslim world in part by funding mosques, schools and social
programs.For a
detailed analysis see Global
Security, January 2010.Shia Islam:
a
Wikipedia portrait. The world's second largest Muslim branch, with a
different interpretion of Islamic history.

This is a Wikipedia
list of
countries listing Muslim
population. Islam is the predominant religion in the Middle East, in
northern Africa, and in some parts of Asia. Large communities of
Muslims are also found in China, the Balkans, and Russia. Other parts
of
the world host large Muslim immigrant communities; in Western Europe,
for instance, Islam is the second largest religion after Christianity,
though it represents less than five percent of the total
population. Approximately 50 countries are Muslim-majority.

This is a Wikipedia
list
of approximately 50 countries in which Islam is the
majority
religion. In a geopolitical sense these countries are often considered
to
form the Muslim world. The list only contains countries where at least
50 percent of the population is Muslim. The table is presorted by the
largest
population by country. It can be sorted on other criteria by clicking
the tab of the appropriate column at the top of the table. The
percentage shows the proportional amount of Muslims out of the total
population of each country.

A Wikipedia
portrait of the
history and culture of the Arab peoples.Those
self-identifying as Arab, however,
rarely do so with it as their sole identity. Most hold multiple
identities, with a more localized prioritized national identity -- such
as Egyptian, Lebanese, or Palestinian -- in addition to further tribal,
village and clan identities.

Surprising as it seems
today, Americans
before
the
Revolutionary
War
were
familiar
with
the
Qur’an
, even
read it, according to a Boston Globe article by a Brown University
librarian. It had none of the threatening aura it carries
today.Many of the
founding fathers had
a high
opinion of Muslims. Despite its foreign air, John Adams’s
Koran
had a strong New
England pedigree. The first Koran published in the United States, it
was printed in Springfield in 1806.Surprisingly, there was a long
tradition of
New Englanders reading in the Islamic scripture.

Here is a
nuanced
portrait of the Muslim
Brotherhood, which is charged by some with controlling
America's
Mosques and Islamic Centers. Reminds a bit of the issues raised by
Stalin's old Comintern, the international grouping of communist groups
which became a tool of Moscow. Leadership in the Islamic world is much
more diffuse.

This search
engine out of the University of Southern California allows
one to
search words and concepts in both the Qur’an and the hadiths,
which are
addendums or interpretations of the Qur’an . The hadiths are
controversial because some add things not in the Qur’an --
like
the
stoning of adulterers. Some practices by fundamentalist Muslims may be
from literal interpretations of the Qur’an or from later
hadiths
which
are no longer universally accepted. So far I have found no references
to beheadings in the Qur’an. There may be some reference in some
hadiths. In some cases practices have been adopted
by Muslims from traditions of areas to which Islam has spread.
Here is a useful online Qur'an at the University of Southern California
which allows one to compare three
English
translations
of
each
phrase.

This online Qur’an
also has
a search engine to check for concepts. However, if you try to read
chapter by chapter, you will find the text broken up by the Arabic
version.

Here is another very convenient way
to survey
and read the Qur’an online.
However
there
is
no
search
engine
to
check
out
contents.

Perhaps the
most
useful electronic version of the Qur’an comes on applications
("apps")
for the Iphone/ Ipod Touch/ Ipad. One of the most useful is "alQur’an
,"
which is free and contains access to about 15 English
translations and to many in other languages.

Those of you with the Iphone/Ipod
Touch/Ipad
can also download a marvelous application ("app")
allowing you to explore four hadiths which contain some of
the
most controversial teachings of Islam,
including "holy war" or jihad. This app contains a
search function which allows you to check out four hadiths.

Secrets of
the
Qur’an : a
multimedia YouTube
reconstruction of the
origins of Islam. The Qur’an has a number of different
translations and
has been interpreted in many ways -- much like the Bible -- in accord
with the beliefs and politics of those who interpret it. Similarly
English translations differ according to the orientation and politics
of the translator. Some are by Turkish scholars, some by Indian, some
influenced by the Saudis. This documentary hints at the fascinating
bonds between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

A
Survey
of
the
English
Translations
of
the
Qur’an
: (Middle East Quarterly) In
the past Muslims were
reluctant to translate the Qur’an into English -- for fear
the
translator might intentionally or unintentionally move the meaning in
unorthodox directions. When English and other missionaries began to
make translations (many in the 18th Century and on), concern grew that
the
missionaries were changing the meanings in ways hostile to
Islam.
Gradually Muslim scholars began to make their own translations into
non-Arabic languages to insure the meanings were faithful to the Arabic.

An example of how
modernizers in
the
Islamic tradition modify
the
substance
or
interpretation
of
certain
hadiths
(accounts of
Muhammad's words or deeds) to make the Qur’an and hadiths
more
compatible with modern times. These Turkish scholars argue that by
removing incorrect hadiths they are recreating a more authentic version
of Muhammad's practices (a higher place for women), a version distorted
by later additions.

Different strains of Islam
interpret the
Qur’an differently, as do different English language
translations. The
English
version translated by Turkish scholar Ali Unal is less orthodox than
some -- and uses an easily read modern style of English. This evolution
is very similar to what has happened to the Bible in the Christian
tradition -- with fundamentalists stressing the authoritarian,
sometimes violent verses of the Old Testament and liberals spotlighting
love and social service found in the New Testament Gospels.

What's
Really Wrong With the Middle East: A very useful website
covering
many aspects of Middle East politics and life by the Middle East Editor
of the Manchester Guardian.The
Roots
of
Islamic
Rage, by Bernard Lewis: a noted scholar with a
relatively dark view of Islam attributes the rage to the tendency in
contemporary Islam to reject modernism and secularism.

A survey of Islam with many useful resources on the website
of "ReligiousTolerance," Ontario, Canada.

POLITICAL
ISLAMSamuel
P.
Huntington, The
Clash of
Civilizations, 1993, a Harvard
political scientist's classic analysis of an inherent geopolitical and
ideological clash between Islamic and Western Civilization. "It
is
my
hypothesis
that
the
fundamental
source
of
conflict in this new
world will not be primarily ideological or primarily economic. The
great divisions among humankind and the dominating source of conflict
will be cultural. Nation states will remain the most powerful actors in
world affairs, but the principal conflicts of global politics will
occur between nations and groups of different civilizations. The clash
of civilizations will be the battle lines of the future."

Graham
E.
Fuller,
A
World
Without
Islam: Here are some reviews of a book
just released by a former colleague of mine, the former CIA station
chief in Kabul, Afghanistan, former associate chief of long term
intelligence analysis for the CIA and former Rand Corporation political
scientist, Fuller is a critic of current U.S. Afghan policy -- and
argues that fundamental geopolitical rifts, rather than the religion of
Islam, lie behind many of today's conflicts. Islam may serve as the
primary banner to
reinforce and mobilize support for communal, ethnic and political
resentments, he writes -- warning against viewing current conflicts as
simply an expression of Islamic values or a "clash of civilizations."

Whither
Political
Islam:Columbia
University
professor
Mahmood
Mamdani
argues
in
the
January,
2005
issue
of
Foreign
Affairs
that
thinking
of
modern
jihad
as
simply
a
cultural
extension
of
Islam
is
a
common,
and
unfortunate
mistake.
He
cites
two
new
books
by
Gilles
Kepel,
The
War
for
Muslim
Minds, and Olivier Roy, Globalized
Islam, as better historical and sociological explanations,
but they
are only a start.Roy argues that the Koran's most
important
feature is not what it actually says, but what Muslims say about it.
"Not surprisingly," Roy observes, "they disagree, while all stressing
that the Koran is unambiguous and clear-cut."

Wikipedia:
Political
aspects
of
Islam:
a
historical
and
contemporary
survey.

Wikipedia: islamism. "Political Islam" is a set of ideologies holding that Islam is not only a
religion
but also a political system, and that modern Muslims must return to
their roots of
their
religion, and unite politically.

Wikipedia:
Jihad.
A
wide
range
of
opinions
exist
about
the
exact
meaning
of
jihad.
This
general
article
gives
a
useful
overview
noting
the
sometimes
different
meanings
given
to
it
by
Western
and
Middle
Eastern
scholars.

Muslims use the word in a religious context
to refer to three types of
struggles: an internal struggle to maintain faith, the struggle to
improve the Muslim society, or the struggle in a holy war. The differences of opinion are
the result
of different interpretation of the two most important sources in Islam,
the Qur’an and the ahadith (singular: hadith).

Muslims in China's Northwest
Xinkiang
Province

HUMAN
RIGHTS
BY
ISLAMIC
COUNTRY

Use this Wikipedia
list
of countries in which Islam is the majority religion of
the
people to gain basic religious and political data on the country whose
human rights record you explore. In
a geopolitical
sense
these countries are often considered to
form the Muslim world. The list only contains countries where at least
fifty percent of the population is Muslim. The table is presorted by
the largest
population by country. It can be sorted on other criteria by clicking
the tab of the appropriate column at the top of the table. The
percentage shows the proportional amount of Muslims out of the total
population of each country.Click
on
country
of
choice
within
the Human
Rights Watch
Report (2010) on the following Muslim majority countries:

Since
1999
several
heavily Islamic countries have argued for international restrictions on
defamation of religion, a position Americans tend to oppose in the name
of free speech. When should words or book burnings be regulated -- and
when do they become a form of symbolic violence, symbolic
terrorism? Americans do make some exceptions: KKK cross
burnings
are generally beyond the pale. Religion
and
Ethics
Newsweekly,
PBS.

The Supreme
Court upheld in 2003 a 50 year old Virginia law making it
illegal
for Ku Klux Klansmen and others to burn crosses with the intention of
intimidating or harming. What about acts of "defamation" which are like
"yelling fire in a crowded theater?" Should they be permitted even
though death of injury may result

In 2009 the
United Nations Human Rights Council passed a non-binding
resolution, backed by several Islamic states, condemning defamation of
religion as a human rights violation. While many see this as protecting
Islam, in theory it would also condemn anti-Semitic and anti-Christian
defamation.

"Crying
Fire
in
a
Crowded
Theater:" the famous quote from Supreme Court
Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes (1919). This limit on free speech and
action in America is notoriously difficult to apply in real life, as it
requires "a clear and present danger" of imminent harm in order to
transcend rights of free speech.

The
classic 2005 case of
a
backlash by Islamic demonstrators against Danish newspaper cartoons
seen to insult, to defame Muhammad. Check this YouTube
video to
understand how Anti-Western organizers can sometimes use such
"defamations" to organize an emotional mob. The "defamation" works to
strengthen those pushing hostility toward Western countries.

Radio
Islam:
a
particularly
virulent
anti-Semitic
website
run
by
Swedish/Moroccan
Ahmed
Rami.
This
extreme
strain
in
Islam
portrays
Jews
as
a
kind
of
Satan
--
and
undermines
the
efforts
of
those
Muslims
in
the
U.S.
and
elsewhere
who
seek
outreach
to
Christians
and
Jews.

A profile of Ahmed
Rami,
an
anti-Semite
and
holocaust
denier
who
publishes
"Radio
Islam."
in
website
form.
This
kind
of
anti-Semitism,
of
course,
fuels
anti-Islamic
feeling
in
Israel
and
the
West.

The "Nation of
Islam,"
now headed by
Minister Louis
Farrakhan, identifies with the Anti-Semitism widespsread in the Islamic
world. It develops a national posture which calls on African Americans
to emulate the success of American Jews in many aspects of American
life -- while decrying what it calls a Jewish
record
of
exploiting
American
Blacks. This is a "Black Nationalist"
movement separate from mainstream Islam.

Some 42 percent of
Muslims in the US
are
Afro-American. That amounts to 2.1 million, although all such
statistics are unreliable. Examine this website
on Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan's shift toward mainstream
Sunni Islam -- and the doctrinal differences remaining. The NOI places
the Bible on a higher footing than does traditional Sunni. (After
breaking with NOI's Elijah Muhammad,
Farrakhan's
predecessor). Malcolm X became a Sunni Muslim before his assassination
in 1965)

Here is Malcolm
X's
account of his trip to Mecca, part of his conversion from
Nation of Islam (NOI), a powerful African American form of Islam, to
mainstream Sunni Islam. He broke from NOI leader Elijah Muhammad and
formed a Sunni style American mosque before his assassination in 1965.This article on English
translations
of
the
Qur’an also explains the Black Muslim (Nation of
Islam) choice of a 1917 translation which denies the "miracle" of
virgin birth and tends to be interpreted by some to be both
anti-Christian and anti-Jewish. Other translations are said to be more
faithful to the original Arabic.

ISLAM
AND
JOURNALISMHarvard
University
Center for Middle Eastern Studies:
one of the few web based Islam resources for journalists on the web.
There is a stunning shortage of usable resources on the web -- and no
major "gateway page" which can guide a visitor to web resources. This
plays into the hands of extremists of all kind. For now Wikipedia fills
the vacuum.Covering
Religions:
A
Primer
on
Journalism's
Best
Beat: religion story ideas
and sources.Nieman
Reports: Islam; Reporting
in Context and With Complexity. Examine this list of
sometimes very
useful articles which can be read online. "This collection of articles
explores the
challenges journalists encounter in their coverage of Islam in the wake
of 9/11. Words and images that follow speak to these difficulties but
also address ways in which journalist -- and scholars who study Islam
-- are striving to anchor their work in a knowledgeable context and
imbue it with essential layers of complexity. "

Zaytuna
College, Berkeley, Californis's new Islamic college will
undoubtedly be under scrutiny for the content and atmosphere
surrounding its courses on Islamic theology and Arabic -- not to
mention its finances.

Inside
Higher Ed: here is a more detailed article on Zaytuna
College,
Berkeley's first Islamic College. Its organizers have long term goals
to create a full college of more than current majors in Islamic history
and Arabic. They have sometimes compared its goal
with the
Jesuit Georgetown in Washington, DC.

Australian
Islamic
College
founders make it clear one purpose of
"overseas" Islamic education is to protect youth from losing their
Islamic identity. In Australian history ethnic/religious groups seeking
to retain their separateness has sometimes been as controversial as in
America. See Wikipedia
entry for conviction on corruption charges. The
Australian details the charges. See a video history.

YouTube segment on Islamic
education in
Australia: just how similar will American Islamic colleges be
to
the model in Australia? Are these schools encouraging of a more open,
tolerant form of Islam -- or are they reservoirs for anti-Western
propaganda? All topics for journalism inquiry.

ISLAMIC
JEWISH
RELATIONS

Wikipedia
is
a useful source on controversial topic of relationship between Islam
and Judaism. In some instances Islam tolerated and encouraged
coexistence and flowering of both cultures but with limitations. In
some instances Jews were forced to convert. The historic interaction
began
in the 7th century with the origin and spread of Islam on the Arabian
Peninsula.

Wikipedia
provides a thorough survey of different theories and practices
concerning anti-Semitism in Islam. This is both historical and
contemporary.

Propaganda
and
history: this account from Israeli point of view stresses
limitations, abuses against Jews by Islam during its early period after
its 7th Century rise. Islamic accounts stress co-operation,
partnership, Jews turning to Islam for protection from Christians.

Propaganda
and
history: this essay stresses early tolerance of Islam for
Judaism -- appears to gloss over repressive parts of Islamic rule.
Jewish accounts more likely to stress restrictions and abuses carried
out against Jews in early days of Islam.

In
this brief Wikipedia
history, we see the defacto ethnic cleansing which uprooted both Jews
and Palestinians with the establishment of Israel. We also see how
religious doctrine was used by both sides to enhance control. Growing
Jewish immigration from Europe and the move to establish Jewish
dominance in a Jewish state exaggerated the existing divide between
peoples competing for land and power.

An
exhaustive Wikipedia
examination of the dealings of Jerusalem's Grand Mufti with Hitler and
other fascists during WWII. The anti-Zionist Mufti sought Hitler's help
against both the Britain and against growing Jewish immigration to
Palestine Some see today's radical Islam as the descendant of this man,
a view rejected by other scholars. All of this adds to the emotional
content of today's disputes.

Here
is a You
Tube video
examining the alliance between Hitler and the Islamic Grand Mufti of
Jerusalem. Hitler hoped to exploit Arab--Jewish rivalries in Palestine
and to appeal to Arab nationalism and anti-semitism in areas where
Hitler's enemies -- Britain and France -- had established colonies over
Islamic subjects. The heritage of a proud culture having been ruled
by the West, is even today a source of anti-European, anti-American
emotion -- as the U.S. moves forward to establish protectorates in Iraq
and perhaps Afghanistan. This video alleges Hitler openly revealed the
coming Holocaust to the Mufti.

We
can see that
one of the central
propaganda
points
of
conservative
anti-Islamic
nationalists is to
link Islam with Hitler. Propagandists usually seek to link their enemy
with someone or something which is in disrepute. This is not to say
that that there were not
alliances between some Islamic leaders and the Nazis in WWII. Indeed we
find among many Islamic militants a deep distrust of the West and a
kind of conspiratorial, almost delusional thinking which is very
similar to the sentiments voiced Islamophobes in the West.

Long,
long ago,
before
Israelis
and
Muslim Arabs between locked in a deadly conflict over control of
Palestine, Jews and Muslims lived together in peace on many occasions
over history. See this You Tube
video
on Muslim heroes of the Holocaust. Today the divide seems fierce and
unrelenting. While the conflict takes religious forms, a battle over
land and who runs what has become the Israeli state has replaced
historic coexistence. The notes by Muslims attached to the bottom of
this Youtube post show how bitter is the divide.

Jews
in the
Arab World: a useful bibliographic and essay source by the
MiddleEast editor of The Manchester Guardian

ANTI-ISLAMIC
THINKINGThese three Wikipedia essays are very
useful for undserstanding the broad range of reasons why Islam is and
has been under criticism:

Islamophobia 1994
to 2010: a collection of useful resosurces on the rise of hate
specch and violence against Muslims, on the website of
ReligiousTolerance, Ontario, Canada.One
of the central propaganda points of
conservative anti-Islamic nationalists is tolink
Islam
with
Hitler.

Propagandists
usually
seek
to
link
their
enemy
with
someone
or
something
which
is
in
disdain.
This
is
not
to
say
that
Islam
is
not
sometimes
associated
with
authoritarianism
or
that
there
were
not
alliances
between
some
Islamic
leaders
and
the
Nazis
in
WWII.
Indeed
we
find
among
many
Islamic
militants
a
deep
distrust
of
the
West
and
a
kind
of
conspiratorial,
almost
delusional
thinking
which
is
also
characteristic
of
extreme
anti-Islamic
militants.

"Islam:
why
I
am
buying
a
gun": see YouTube segment for the most
fundamental fears of an American who sees his country as about to be
swamped by hostile and murderous Muslims pushing Sharia Law. It is
hardly surprising as Americans are fighting in more than two Islamic
countries with more than 3,000 killed by terrorists espousing Islam.

A classic.
vivid,
violent example of how YouTube is used to spread anti-Islam
propaganda through graphic photos of atrocities and warnings on the
threat of Sharia Law. All kinds of propaganda wars are fought
out
on YouTube with uploads by governments, private pressure groups, and
individuals.

This profile of "Jihad Watch's"
leader, Robert
Spencer, gives useful insights into the emergence of
anti-Islam
ideology as the new foundation for conservative American nationalism.
An emotional fear of Islam plays the role that fear of communism did in
the past.

A comprehensive,
interesting, but shrill anti-Islam webside, FaithFreedom.org
with contributions from both the West and the Islamic World. The
message of this site is that it is war to the death. Background."Sand
Nigger" and "Towel
Head" are widely used anti-Muslim epithets in
the United States and elsewhere. Here is a listing of ethic slurs.Many
factors influence
Hollywood stereotypes of "foreign peoples" --
whether they be Chinese, Japanese, or Muslims. It works both ways since
"overseas peoples" can form stereotypes of the West, sometimes through
what comes to them from Hollywood. World War II shaped images of evil
Japanese; Korea shaped images of threatening Chinese hordes.
Palestinian terrorism of the Seventies and then Al-Qaeda of 9/11
brought in a whole generation of evil terrorists shading over to evil
Muslims. Check this YouTube
on how Hollywood has portrayed Arabs which, contrary to its treatment
of Asians, has been almost universally negative.

My, he's
Good!!
Glenn Beck on YouTube walks the fine line between posing as a
reformer and stirring up prejudice against Muslims. A good propagandist
knows how to exploit the weaknesses, the vices of his opponent -- such
as a Muslim beheading his wife. Beck's forte is to make a crime seem
standard Islamic behavior.